PINTER, Harold.

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The Birthday Party. Screenplay for the 1968 film adaptation of the author's play, directed by William Friedkin. "Although [Pinter] has adapted four of his own plays for film (The Caretaker, The Birthday Party, The Homecoming and Betrayal), the adapted scripts have not appeared in print..." (Baker & Ross, p. ix).Friedkin (1935-2023), later the director of The Exorcist, recalled seeing the first American production of The Birthday Party as "a revelation as pivotal as Citizen Kane" (Friedkin, p. 54), and stated "the power and impact of Harold Pinter's play and its potential as a film became my obsession" (Friedkin, p. 122). In an early meeting between Friedkin and Pinter it was agreed that although the screenplay "would be faithful to the play, Harold wanted three months to adapt it" (Friedkin, p. 127).Steven H. Gale notes that "a copy of the filmscript is held in Special Collections at the University of Southern California Doheny Library (Los Angeles)" (Gale, p. 5).The present copy has an ownership signature on the title page which is heavily crossed out. It appears to be the name of Gerry Harrison, the second assistant director of the film. Harrison would, later, be an assistant director for Monty Python and the Holy Grail. Helen Fraser, who played the character of Lulu, has presumably indicated her lines throughout. There are a small number of deletions and notes.

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